From: Graeme Lindsell (lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au)
Date: Fri 01 Jul 1994 - 00:05:44 EEST
In response to Paul's toe surgery, a few thoughts on Illumination.
The central teaching of Illumination, we're told, is that chaos is not necessarily evil. This is such a shocking concept to many central Genertelans that if unprepared they go mad, and they adopt an often solipsistic view of reality.
I'm not sure that this would be such a shock to the members of other cultures. The Westerner, for example, does not generally distinguish between chaos monsters and inhuman but non-chaotic monsters such as trolls or dragonewts, calling them all "krjalki". The idea that they may not be evil would be considered more the sign of an open mind, as some of them (trolls for example) seem to have accepted a bit of teaching of the Prophet via Arkat.
To the Malkionist, the Devil is the great enemy, rather than chaos in general. If a Westerner were to interpret the message of Illumination as "the Devil isn't Evil" she/he would be making a mistake, as the Devil is by definition the moral evil of the world. This may cause some confusion for the Westerner (ie insanity), but could be shown to be wrong.
The Kralorelan on the other hand is associated with the Dragons, who were neutral in the battle with chaos. They would see chaos as a threat, but then so are most foreigners. Chaos is only somewhat more repellent: Illumination allows the Kralorelan to overcome his or her repugnance with aspects of the world, and adopt a more philosophical attitude to all of existance.
Even the Dara Happan may find the message less shocking: the myths in GRoY show a people more concerned with rebellion than with chaos, and I'm certain that Orlantius is seen as the most evil figure, rather than the Devils and other monsters he helped release.
To the Doraddi chaos is another evil force from the North, similar to the Six Legged Empire. (Do the Doraddi see North as the evil direction?). They could probably accept that these people are not all evil, and would even say that only those who attacked Pameltela have shown themselves to be so.
To me it seems as though Illumination would be of most concern to the Orlanthi and other cultures of Central Genertela concerned with the war on chaos. Since these are the main cultures we've been shown so far it's not surprising that Illumination is considered such an evil plague to them, as it attempts to refute a central tenet of their faiths.
Just to summarise: I don't think Illumination should be considered a fact of such huge importance to thoer cultures. To many others it's message is largely irrelevant or cann't be expressed in ways they would understand. It's interesting that the game mechanic effects of Illumination are mainly of interest to the rune theists, rather than to wizards or mystics, or even the Doraddi.
--
Graeme Lindsell a.k.a lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au
Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra.
"I was 17 miles from Greybridge before I was caught by the school leopard"
Ripping Yarns - Tomkinson's Schooldays.
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